O/T Auction or Estate Sale?

Cleaning up my Dad"s stuff. My sister wants to have an estate sale; I"m leaning toward an auction. For those who have been through it, which is best? There"s the normal household stuff. My mom took very good care of her furniture. She has some 70s tables in the basement. Dad was an electrician/machinist. He built machines used to procure pig skins for Hush Puppies. He has some precision tools and some not so great garage tools. He also has the normal garage stuff: snow blower, mowers, rakes, tillers, etc. an older table saw, drill press, lots of electrical fittings and some wire, step ladders, etc.

He lived on a large lot in town but has limited parking, mostly on the street.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Larry

I would advertise the precision tools to the appropriate trade for electricians or machinists to get better prices.

Common items can be sold at an estate sale or at auction. Auction might fetch higher prices, depending on all the variable factors of an auction.

have a auction then you are done with it. they clean up what don't sell.You will save a lot of time that way

(quoted from post at 17:05:12 04/17/13) have a auction then you are done with it. they clean up what don't sell.You will save a lot of time that way

Click to expand...

Be careful with that up here the auction companies won't clean up after you are stuck with whatever doesn't sell. The estate sale companies with get rid of whatever won't sell. Personally I think you sell more with an estate sale but thats just me.

Can you and your family handle an estate sale emotionally? Every yahoo in the county will be cutting down every item your folks cared for and worked with for how ever many years.
At least with an auction it is cut and dried as soon as you contract the auctioneer. You might have to shove your hands in your pockets and grumble,but you take away the risk of a family member alienating a bunch of customers.

I have been the executer on four estates. The third one the family wanted an estate sale. It turned out to be a joke. They only got maybe 50% of what the stuff was worth. How do I know this?? The estate was purchased by a local company. They held an auction a few months after they bought the estate. I went and wrote down the prices that most of the large stuff brought. The estate company made very good money. This is really true on antique stuff.

I will never do another estate sale unless it is in a major urban area and there is just house hold stuff. Furniture and such does not bring much any way unless it is antique.

Just have an auction with a good local auctioneer. It will surprise you what things will bring. The last estate auction had a large stack of old new papers going clear back into the 1920s. We sorted them in to decades, 20s,30s etc. That stack of news papers brought almost a $1000. The family wanted to throw them away.

Have a auction and then have a dumpster there during the sale. Anything left just pitch in the dumpster. By a few hours after the sale it is all over with and your done. If you live a long ways away and will need to sell the house just hire a local cleaning service to finish the house up after the sale. It will be the best $500-750 that you will ever spend. You can have the house sale at the auction. Then you can really just walk away. Cheaper homes will bring just about as much at auction as they will trying to sell them on any other way.

Some things to remember when having an auction:

1) Do not have a bidders premium. Some fly by night auctioneers push these to old people by saying that the auctions will not cost them anything. WRONG??? A lot of bidders will not even go. The seller is going to pay for the sale one way or another. Just have a conventional sale and all the costs are handle after the auction out of the auction proceeds.

2) Spend some money on advertising. Auction ads are not cheap but if you catch just one extra good bidder they can pay for all of the advertising cost for the whole auction. So advertise in a few local papers and a few regional ones. Your auctioneer should have an Internet site too.

The first estate I handled had a collection of 1970s match box cars. Nothing really rare. Just a lot of them in the origianl boxes, never opened, price tags on most of them. I had it appraised and they said it might bring a few hundred dollars. Two guys came up from St. Louis. They where friends but still wanted some of the models real bad. That collection brought over $4500. Most of that due to those two guys. They put a real high floor under what the collection was bring. If they had not been there the auction would have made a whole lot less money.

So usually good advertising pays dividends. For an average estate sale the advertising can easily be $2500-4000 dollars depending what you have when you set down and list it. A short list to keep the ad's cost down will shot yourself in the foot every time. If that is what you do them just do not bother with advertising much. IF you want to hold the cost way down then a large list in the local papers is better than a short list on a bunch of papers. Remember this is not you selling a set of used tires on Craigslist. There is going to be cost involved.

3) As far as parking. Do not worry about it. People will find places to park.

4) Have the sale on a Saturday or Sunday. Never have an estate sale during the week with just normal house hold stuff. People will not take off work just to go the a mid week sale they will go to one on the weekend. Yes I did say a Sunday sale. They are getting to be more of them around here for just household stuff. There usually is a good turn out.

Well I have given you some stuff to think about. It is worth what you paid for it. LOL. You need to keep peace in the family too. So if this becomes a battle with the one sister just let it go. The estate you are talking about is not going to be a high dollar auction/sale either way you sell it. I just think auctions are the best way to go. The market sets the price. These days that can be the world market too even on an estate sale.

Good luck and I am sorry your Father/Mother are gone. It makes one feel their age when you become the last of a line.

I though hush puppies were made with cornmeal. I guess I don't know the difference between an estate sale and an auction. They seem to be the same here. Furniture will bring pennies here. Talk to an auctioneer you trust. they will steer you in the right direction.

Have an auction. With a good crowd, you will get fair market value. With an estate sale, you trust the person putting a price tag on an item to know what the item is worth.
Parking for an auction will work itself out.
All items will sell at an auction, however they may not be taken. With the left over items(which were purchased and paid for), load up and donate to a shelter or other charity and take the tax write-off so it's like being paid twice.

Have an auction. See if any neighbors have any high sale items to add to it. More items more people. Sell the Good items towards the end of the sale to hold the buyers. List the good items in a flyer.

Art Smith will set up everything and have a dumpster brought in. I think he has a real good auction set ups. He'll auction how you want to do it.

I'd say auction but an auction is a crap shoot as to weather,other things including other auctions that day etc.I have been to auctions like the stuff you have and its goes sky high then the next week 5 miles down the road the auctioneer has to beg for a bid no rime or reason really.
Picking an auctioneer is really important and mostly because of his following some have folks that speed big bucks come to their auctions some have bargain hunters and junk guys.

In 2001 I was the executor for my aunt's estate. She lived an hour away from me, and my wife and I both worked. I did not have the time to set up for an auction, and so we chose to do an estate sale. I chose a person who was recommended by some friends whom I trust a great deal.

This woman was fantastic! She and her crew did all of the set up and pricing of the items. We felt the prices were fair.

On all the kitchen items (knives, spatulas, etc.) each piece was individually priced, whereas at an auction these would all get thrown in a box, and the box would sell for a dollar.

We also stopped in while the sale was in progress. It was very well run, and very professionally done.

At the end of the sale, she had someone who came in and bought whatever was left, and the house was completely empty. I did not have to worry about cleaning up and disposing of the leftovers.

I was well satisfied with the experience we had and would not hesitate to do an estate sale again.

Rich- What was estate sellers percentage cut from the sales?

after we divided mom"s between the siblings and grand children we then sold the best of whats left to an individual, gave some to various needy places then tossed what was left. we did not want strangers wandering throughout mom"s home, handling and haggling over her things. less money but all 4 sibling happy with results.

I think they are using estate sale as like in garage sale.

(quoted from post at 20:40:13 04/17/13) Rich- What was estate sellers percentage cut from the sales?

Click to expand...

This was back in 2001, but if I remember correctly, it was 30%.
We didn't think that was unreasonable, since she did all the work.

Here in Ohio many estates are sold at auction at the local fair grounds. The auctioneer will even combine several small ones. They list them clearly as to who had what in the ads too.
They just haul it all in and sell it. Plenty of parking,restrooms,and even a food wagon or 2.

I think of an estate sale like a garage sale.These you are not going to get rid of much.

I thought the same thing, Cowman! Then it dawned on me, he must be talking about the shoes called "Hushpuppies", LOL!

Thanks for all the input. I look at estate sales as glorified garage sales where you pay someone to work for you. An auction produces several people wanting the same item, thus increasing the price. And almost everything will sell and what won"t can be tossed in the curbside trash can.

I"ve been to several Art Smith auctions and he has a huge following. I"m going to push for an auction.

Larry

I always thought an estate sale was an auction of a deceased person's belongings.

I picked up two chairs for $35, a kitchen table with 6 chairs for $10, actually filled the truck with stuff I could use, for under $100.

A lot of those "rules" about auctions, like the weather being a factor, are BS.

The nice thing about auctions is that EVERYTHING sells. Whether they take it or not is another thing, but the pile after an auction will be a lot smaller than an estate sale.

At estate sales everyone just picks over everything and most of it doesn't sell at any price. You end up with a lot of cr@p to get rid of.

My family is currently in the same position. We are having an auction on-site. We selected a local auctioneer with a great rep whose auctions I have attended - they are charging 25% and everything goes. We pay the advertising cost - this is key, if you have antiques, collectibles, etc you will want to attract those buyers. There are auctioneers with facilities and they will take everything there - that way you don't have to worry about parking, weather, and having enough stuff to attract a good crowd. Here in Missouri they charge 35% and they pack up and transport everything. Good Luck!